ASUS $149 MeMO Pad Signals More Affordable Tablets Coming To Market

How low can you go? ASUS has announced the MeMO Pad, a 7-inch (1024x600) multi-touch tablet sporting a 1GHz VIA WM8950 CPU with a Mali 400 GPU and running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. And it costs just $149.

An iPad killer it’s not, but ASUS has plenty of other tablets designed to compete toe-to-toe with the king of tablets. Instead, the ASUS MeMO Pad is designed for lightweight users who just want a device for Web browsing, online shopping, streaming, and social networking. Said ASUS in a press release, “Our focus for this device is on delivering excellent performance per watt and a smooth and fluid user experience at an extremely affordable price, NOT on winning benchmarks.”


The tablet also features 8GB or 16GB of onboard storage (with 5GB of ASUS WebStorage and another 32GB available via the microSD slot), 1GB of RAM, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, and front 1MP 720p HD camera. There’s also a micro-USB port, 3.5mm audio jack, and a microphone on the 13.7oz device. The battery purports to last 7 hours, and users have full access to the Google Play Store and a handful of preinstalled ASUS apps.


Available in Sugar White, Titanium Gray, and Cherry Pink, the ASUS MeMO Pad will be a available in the U.S. starting in April.


Even if you’re not particularly interested in a tablet like this one, you should be smiling, because this is a sign that tablet prices are dropping. The $200 price point for a 7-inch tablet has more or less been the ceiling (basement?) up to now--at least for a tablet backed by a reliable brand name such as Samsung, Amazon, or ASUS--so seeing one of these babies come in at just $149 is noteworthy.